Jeremy Corbyn

Mr Corbyn has recorded a New Year’s message to his supporters and in 3.13 minutes he has perfectly encapsulated why he can’t win a majority.

Presentation

Before you jump to conclusions, this is not about having the media training of everyone’s favourite Etonian who takes liberties with our membership of giant trading blocks.

He doesn’t need to put on a tie or give the “designer” stubble a trim. He doesn’t need Cameron’s elocution or Blair’s “trust me I am a Catholic” hand gestures.

What he needs it to stop coming across like an amateur. If you listen to the quality of the audio there are cars driving by in the background.

Of course people are hardly going to not vote for him because he thought it prudent to conduct his New Year address in the middle of a roundabout. But it does represent what a huge portion of the electorate think- that he is incompetent.

Policy

Or lack of. At no point does he mention any policy, not at all.

Yes, he says that the elderly should be cared for, he points out waiting lists are long and of course homelessness is clearly a stain on a developed economy.

However at no point are any solutions put forward.

Almost all of the electorate agree that we should look after the elderly, that people shouldn’t wait years for operations and children shouldn’t be homeless. If everyone who believed that voted for Labour they would have even more occupied seats than a Virgin train to Newcastle…

It is not the sentiment that you need to convince people of, it is how these aims are achieved. You can’t say that most people don’t agree with his policies because no one knows what they are.

Of course a New Year’s address on YouTube is not necessarily the time for huge policy announcements but their absence underpins an issue with Corbyn’s Labour -their lack of policies.

Target market

This video was a message to his supporters- and that is the problem.

Hats off to Mr Corbyn, he sure can make people who already like him, like him even more. He preaches to the converted like a pro.

Hats even further off, under his leadership Labour Party membership has swollen to in excess of 500,000.

Like every jock in the changing room he likes to show off about the size of his mandate. Unfortunately for him his mandate, 61% of Labour members, is actually less than the number of people who support football teams based in Manchester.

Imagine running an election that just appeals to Manchester City and United fans.

As a percentage of the electorate it is tiny.

If he wants to have a chance of winning a majority, or even maintaining the current amount of seats, he needs to add a few more meetings with industry leaders to his diary.

Why should you care?

For better or worse (absolutely for worse), we live under a system of government which is made for two parties. That means if the Leader of the Opposition (a position Jeremy Corbyn has twice run for), can’t get close to a majority- for all intents and purposes we live in a one party state.

One party, in our case the Tories, are guaranteed to be in power.

Unlimited job security by no means guarantees enduring high levels of competency. Worse than that, it promotes unaccountability and corruption.

Even if you are a true blue Tory, you should want a credible opposition for the simple value of having a competent government that is held to account.

If not, we will end up with a government that is basically Celtic when Rangers got relegated.